The present invention relates to door hold-open devices for use in conjunction with door closers.
It is conventional practice to provide doors in public buildings with spring-urged devices for automatically urging and returning doors to their closed positions. In some circumstances, it is desirable to temporarily defeat or overcome the action of the door closer, by providing a hold-open mechanism to maintain the door in its open position. Hold-open mechanisms may be made selectively releasable, often in response to a remote sensor such as a smoke detector. Known door hold-open devices include, for example, those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,265.
Unfortunately, known hold-open devices are designed such that the door to which they are attached cannot be opened beyond the point where the hold-open device engages and holds the door. Thus, for example, if a known hold-open device is set to hold a door open at the 90xc2x0 position, the door cannot be opened past 90xc2x0 without damaging the door and/or the hold open-device.
Accordingly, there is a need for door hold-open devices for use in conjunction with door closers that permit the door to which they are coupled to open past the hold-open point.
The invention is directed to a door hold-open device including a track, a first catch slidably mounted for longitudinal movement in the track, a stop assembly including a second catch coupled to the track and adapted to engage the first catch wherein the second catch is moveable in a direction different than the longitudinal direction, a resilient member that applies a force to the second catch to urge the second catch into a position where the second catch engages the first catch when the first catch is adjacent to the second catch, and a linear actuator having a first position and a second position, wherein the linear actuator applies a first force to the resilient member in the first position and a second different force to the resilient member in the second position.
The invention is also directed to a method for holding a door open comprising the step of providing a track, a first catch slidably mounted for longitudinal movement in the track, a stop assembly comprising: a second catch coupled to the track and adapted to engage the first catch wherein the second catch is moveable in a direction different than the longitudinal direction; a resilient member that applies a force to the second catch to urge the second catch into a position where the second catch engages the first catch when the first catch is adjacent to the second catch, and a solenoid having an energized position and a de-energized position, wherein the solenoid applies a first force to the resilient member in the energized position and a second force to the resilient member in the de-energized position.